ADS2GO
My first stab at the entrepreneurial mindset came in Los Angeles, when the little ad agency I was working for went belly-up.
At the time, my nights and weekends were consumed with trying to break into the movie business as a screenwriter.
Suddenly I was broke and on the street. I thought, “Much as I’m terrified of it, I have to start my own business.”
I’ll be a freelancer. I’ll write ads for hire.
I remember vividly sitting down with a friend who was a bookkeeper, as she instructed me in how to set up a DBA—“Doing Business As”—and how to keep my accounting books. She taught me the old-fashioned way, with a pencil and a columnar pad. I still do it that way.
I named my new business ADS2GO. I designed stationery and even had a logo—a California license plate with ADS2GO on it.
All my life, I had worked for other people. I always had a boss. I was always an employee.
It was terrifying to get out and hustle. I hated it. I hate it to this day. But I had a movie-writing dream. I had to support it somehow.
I was in my late forties when I started, with massive trepidation, that little one-man business. I still face all such enterprises with the same trepidation (read: RESISTANCE). But that modest success got me out of the “employee” mindset. It laid the foundation for becoming—and thinking and acting like—an artist and an entrepreneur.
DO THE WORK
Steve shows you the predictable Resistance points that every writer hits in a work-in-progress and then shows you how to deal with each one of these sticking points. This book shows you how to keep going with your work.
THE AUTHENTIC SWING
A short book about the writing of a first novel: for Steve, The Legend of Bagger Vance. Having failed with three earlier attempts at novels, here's how Steve finally succeeded.
NOBODY WANTS TO READ YOUR SH*T
Steve shares his "lessons learned" from the trenches of the five different writing careers—advertising, screenwriting, fiction, nonfiction, and self-help. This is tradecraft. An MFA in Writing in 197 pages.
TURNING PRO
Amateurs have amateur habits. Pros have pro habits. When we turn pro, we give up the comfortable life but we find our power. Steve answers the question, "How do we overcome Resistance?"
Great inspiration for anyone who is tired of being an employee and wants to do their own thing. Regardless of what line of work you’re in, it’s never too late to go do it for yourself. I too took the leap in my early forties out of desperation and never looked back, best thing I ever did. There’s a very good chance that before long you will increase your income and reduce your working hours. I also found that when you’re doing work for yourself, in your own way it often doesn’t feel like “work”. Thank you for sharing Steve.
Thank you very much dear Steve.
I can relate to the stress, the terror that had gotten to you. I can also relate to the fact that by being at a mature age, just a few years longer from mine, you were in another way ready for such an endeavor: you had already experienced a good portion of life. You probably weren’t like a 26 years old guy ready to conquer the world, you had probably seen both the dark and the other side of life, as well as many of the often undervalued but probably crucially important grey and coloured zones – you had probably even finished to the end (that’s my pain that I will win) a long book at least, or many more. So whatever would come your way it would not surprise you that much, nor make you make the worst decisions: we had a long time to make those until our 45’s. Because 45+ years of surprises are enough to not be surprised anymore.
To laugh, I was said by an extremely read and powerful person that at about 40+ we men get rid of the “testosterone poisoning” that distracts us all our lives from 16-17 onwards until then. So you could probably have more ability to focus meaningfuly, not letting the immense beauty of women distracting you as much as it probably would in the past. Their beauty and symbolism would distract someone even from correcting their crucial mistakes in life!
So, under this prism I imagine your decision back then to start your own business as a new flowering – not a new beginning, but a continuation that came at the right time. You just had to re-ignite the decision back then. I envy such a dare, and at the same time I wouldn’t want to do that [well, that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t – it’s a strange equation between not wanting to do etwas, and doing it quite well *if* it has both important internal meaning and you need it desperately — “abscence of choice leads to a very quick and powerful decision” (B. Bailey)]. As you may know, I am now at that point of mist and fog, and I can’t exactly distinguish between Resistance and Assistance and the other forces. But in the mist I hear your voice and the voices of the other great people and I’m so happy, or at least always in hope and crazy dare, even in dark times. And in the mist I can dream and prepare free.
Give my love to Diana and to all friends. Rupes Nebulosa.
P.s. “Every day set small goals and achieve them” – what a confidence and material builder for the dreamers to become visionaries. Because in my experience dreamers are always far away, and although they see great or even unbelieavable things, they don’t manage to bring them back home. What a revelation, this small thing.
Thanks for,”It was terrifying to get out and hustle. I hated it. I hate it to this day.”
I’m back to the querying process. Yuck. It makes me feel like an insecure beggar. I hate it, but it’s part of the job. It’s heartening to know I’m not alone in disdain for the hustle. But every time I send something out, I’m giving resistance the finger and being the boss.
Productive week wished for all and may there be success stories to tell.
I’m right with you, Jackie. I finished my “little” book a few weeks ago. (YEA!!) I was going to self-publish with a print-on-demand site, thinking I’d have more creative control over the final book and spent 3 days pulling out my gray hair trying to format an already formatted book to their specs. (Just upload and print was a marketing lie, apparently.) Now, I’m working on the proposal for a trad publishing house. I realized after fuming for a day and a half that I had gone the self-pub route because I was afraid that my work would be rejected. Even with feedback and support that *** little voice will not shut up! We’re not insincere beggars, Jackie. And if/when we get slapped down, we’ll get back up and do it again. It’s their loss. Best wishes, Lin.
Lin,
Congratulations! Good luck with the proposal. I have fists full of rejections. I reimagine, rethink, rewrite, resend. What hasn’t killed me, has made me one tough warrior. Keep to the fight Lin. I’ll want a copy of that “little” book. Best wishes to you, also.
I’m attempting this at age 60. Any thoughts? From anyone?
This is going to be your best year yet!
My take on this PART B is ASSOCIATE with the best. Be openeared openminded -1million ego, be willing to learn. Get good at what will get you to the end of the spectrum, whatever that is for you- and that which will be paying you longterm income. IE employee mentality/attitude/posture vs owner mentality/attitude/posture.
Get away from anything thats in the employee mindset: people, news, gossip- set yourself up for success simply implies new h a b i t s. But that requires boldness to stay away from (kill) the noise, the neggativity- esp from your closest ones. They simply do NOT want to lose the comfortable YOU they know/
You’ll need 1million percent CLARITY of your WHY. EWritten down. Reading aloud as often as u can daily. Until it gets under your skin.
That GOAL, LIFE, DREAM which will rise up and burn inside you every breathing moment.
So BON VOYAGE !! (Stevens materials are superb. I also can suggesta few others along the same lines if you wish me to forward them to you. But #1 is mindset: association (daily association) is your key Eric.
Eric,
Between the ages of 70 and 83, Commodore Vanderbilt added about 100 million to his fortune.
Kant at 74 wrote his Anthropology, Metaphysics of Ethics, and Strife of the Faculties.
Tintoretto at 74 painted the vast Paradise, a canvas 74 feet by 30 feet.
Verdi at 74 produced his masterpiece, Othello: at 80, Falstaff, and at 85, the famous Ave Maria, Stabet Mater, and Te Deum.
Lamarck at 78 completed his great zoological work, The Natural History of the Invertebrates.
Oliver Wendell Holmes at 79 wrote Over the Teacups.
Cato at 80 began the study of Greek.
Goethe at 80 completed Faust.
Tennyson at 83 wrote Crossing the Bar.
Titian at 98 painted his historic picture of the Battle of Lepanto.
Don’t use age as an excuse. Fight resistance. Show up. Do the work. Best wishes.
I’m 54 … hate my job .. super resistance to starting anything of my own.. my brain is often telling me it’s too late but you started on your journey “late” … thx for the extra inspiration today..
As a songwriter, the Resistance shows another face: techniques for revealing the import of the lyrics through the underlying music. So many and varied. Yesterday I ran into a YouTube tutorial for Descending Bassline. I had heard it as the underlayment in Bach, but never realized there were so many ways to present and use it to advantage. Just one more way to present a lyric’s emotion, to SELL IT to the listener.
It took me until my late 30s to stop working crap jobs under incompetent management. After 20+ years of sales and customer service roles, I got burnt out on dealing with 100+ people per day. The exhaustion from that is absolute. It got so bad it ground down my soul. Still don’t like doing sales outreach. I got into copywriting and digital marketing with the goal of not interacting with so many people. However, I still do it, and it feels a lot better because its for me.
So much for those who think the “successful” ones have got it made, Steve.
As adults, we all have to work. It’s part of the ethic of being an adult, not relying on our parents or siblings to chip in. There is nothing better than waking up in the morning and looking forward to going to work. I used to drive a short distance to get to school where I was a school librarian. Most people think all I did was stand behind a desk and check out books. Volunteers did that. I taught 600 children every week, minus those who weren’t at school . It was exhausting to always be cheerful and on “stage”, to not tell 9 & 10 year children to “shut up” or “grow up”! But it was also fun. Sometime I’ll tell you about rewriting Chris van Allsburg’s 2 Bad Ants with 9 year olds. It was hysterical.
Writing grants to get more books or to fund author visits took up my spare time.
There were other benefits like having school vacations with my husband and 2 sons and having a nice pension.
But once I closed the door and the teacher left, I was on my own to teach what I wanted, to make the children enjoy reading and love coming every week.
Kudos to you for inspiring others with your books! I’m looking forward to reading the next one. Maybe I can get my book club to read it also.
You learned what most artists never do—that being a successful artist requires entrepreneurship. Great advice.
Love the logo. And appreciate the honest encouragement to see and act past the resistance.
Thank you!
Thank you. Love your logo. Your timing for this post is perfection. I hit a confidence crisis yesterday. I write fiction—adventure stories for daring women and I married my bean-counter because I love him and I still can’t manage a ledger or a spreadsheet.
hardest thing in life, most rewarding move in life
is going “out there” on your own.
i have been “my own boss” for over 50 yrs, and still
love my profession with a passion.
i learned early in life that i am the “master of my fate”.
and i am “the captain of my soul”, but where i diverge from
the author of those above phrases (william earnest henley-“Invictus”)
i am a Christian, he was an atheist.
ps–> “Happy 250th, and of course Semper Fi, Steve.
Also digging the logo.
Wow, perfect timing as I start a small business with trepidation to support my art, thanks Steven so much again and again.
Thx for sharing that the internal struggle between progress and remaining still is the driving force for change. We can choose the heavy hammer or lighter nail. But only with the hammer can we build a new future!